S. Africa's COVID-19 cases surpass 600,000

APD NEWS

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South Africa has so far recorded a total of 603,338 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 3,398 new cases reported over the last 24 hours, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Friday.

The country also reported 225 more COVID-19 related deaths, bringing the total national deaths to 12,843, the minister said.

The Western Cape province still has the highest number of fatalities in the country with 3,713 losing their lives to the virus, followed by Gauteng and the Eastern Cape with 3,190 and 2,753 respectively.

The number of recoveries stood at 500,102, with a recovery rate of 82 percent, he said.

Over the past four weeks, the number of new confirmed cases has dropped from a peak of over 12,000 a day to an average of around 4,000 a day.

South Africa remains the COVID-19 epicenter in Africa, with more than half of the total cases in the continent.

Worldwide, the country ranks the fifth in terms of confirmed cases, after the United States, Brazil, India and Russia.